Portrait of a Gentleman

portrait

The portrait of this strikingly well-dressed gentleman, and its companion-piece, the portrait of a lady (Staatliche Museen, Berlin) were probably painted on the occasion of their marriage, as indicated by the pair of wedding gloves lying on the table beside the woman. The identity of the couple is not known. De Keyser painted these portraits according to the custom of the time, by which husband and wife were portrayed on separate canvases or panels.

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About the Artist

Thomas de Keyser

1596 – 1667

Son and pupil of Hendrick de Keyser (1565-1621), the outstanding Dutch sculptor, Thomas de Keyser was municipal architect to the City of Amsterdam from 1662 until his death (he added the cupola to van Campen's Town Hall), but he is better known as a portrait painter. He was indeed, Amsterdam's leading portraitist before being overtaken in popularity by Rembrandt in the 1630s. His life-size portraits look stiff compared with Rembrandt's and he is more attractive and original on a small scale. Constantin Huygens and His Clerk (National Gallery, London, 1627) is an excellent example of one of his small portraits of full-length figures in an interior, forerunners of the conversation pieces. His small equestrian portraits were also a new type ( Pieter Schout, Rijksmuseum, 1660).

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